USA: GPS Tracking Without a Warrant Declared Legal

[TrichyTrichy]

they took their gps,back!
http://gawker.com/5658671/dont-post...king-device-you-find-on-a-car-to-the-internet

 

[Burt]

Here it is-or an older versions of it
http://www.slashgear.com/fbi-demand-gps-bug-back-from-tracked-us-student-08106683/

 

[headband 707]

Yeah I haven't read through all these posts but I read a story where they thought the guy was buying too many ferts so in HOME DEPOT so they put a GPS tracker on his truck and followed him around . When he went to court he said to the Judge he thought it was an infringement upon his rights and he lost. peace out Headband707

 

[rick shaw]

Watching a report on tv about a Muslim man in Santa Clara whose mechanic found a tracking device on his car and posted photos on the web.FBI came to his house demanding the unit returned.

 

[Strainhunter]

Investigators don't need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in California

Investigators don't need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in California

Not a grower, just some Arab guy but nevertheless this is an article you should read if you live in Cali
(and where else no warrants are needed to use those).

As a matter of fact if you are a grower no matter where you live you should frequently check for GPS trackers.

Paranoia?
Go ahead then don't check and rather feel sorry later than safe now!


Read the whole article here:

Oil change reignites debate over GPS trackers

 

[cannadelic]

Big brothers watching somebody

Big brothers watching somebody

Here's a little food for thought:

Oil change reignites debate over GPS trackers


SAN FRANCISCO – Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage.

The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it.

Two days later, FBI agents arrived at Afifi's Santa Clara apartment and demanded the return of their property — a global positioning system tracking device now at the center of a raging legal debate over privacy rights.

One federal judge wrote that the widespread use of the device was straight out of George Orwell's novel, "1984".

"By holding that this kind of surveillance doesn't impair an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, the panel hands the government the power to track the movements of every one of us, every day of our lives," wrote Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a blistering dissent in which a three-judge panel from his court ruled that search warrants weren't necessary for GPS tracking.

But other federal and state courts have come to the opposite conclusion.

Law enforcement advocates for the devices say GPS can eliminate time-consuming stakeouts and old-fashioned "tails" with unmarked police cars. The technology had a starring role in the HBO cops-and-robbers series "The Wire" and police use it to track every type of suspect — from terrorist to thieves stealing copper from air conditioners.

That investigators don't need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in California troubles privacy advocates, technophiles, criminal defense attorneys and others.

The federal appeals court based in Washington D.C. said in August that investigators must obtain a warrant for GPS in tossing out the conviction and life sentence of Antoine Jones, a nightclub owner convicted of operating a cocaine distribution ring. That court concluded that the accumulation of four-weeks worth of data collected from a GPS on Jones' Jeep amounted to a government "search" that required a search warrant.

Judge Douglas Ginsburg said watching Jones' Jeep for an entire month rather than trailing him on one trip made all the difference between surveilling a suspect on public property and a search needing court approval.

"First, unlike one's movements during a single journey, the whole of one's movements over the course of a month is not actually exposed to the public because the likelihood anyone will observe all those movements is effectively nil," Ginsburg wrote. The state high courts of New York, Washington and Oregon have ruled similarly.

The Obama administration last month asked the D.C. federal appeals court to change its ruling, calling the decision "vague and unworkable" and arguing that investigators will lose access to a tool they now use "with great frequency."

After the D.C. appeals court decision, the 9th Circuit refused to revisit its opposite ruling.

The panel had concluded that agents could have gathered the same information by following Juan Pineda-Moreno, who was convicted of marijuana distribution after a GPS device alerted agents he was leaving a suspected "grow site."

"The only information the agents obtained from the tracking devices was a log of the locations where Pineda-Moreno's car traveled, information the agents could have obtained by following the car," Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote for the three-judge panel.

Two other federal appeals court have ruled similarly.

In his dissent, Chief Judge Kozinski noted that GPS technology is far different from tailing a suspect on a public road, which requires the active participation of investigators.

"The devices create a permanent electronic record that can be compared, contrasted and coordinated to deduce all manner of private information about individuals," Kozinksi wrote.

Legal scholars predict the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the issue since so many courts disagree.

George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr said the issue boils down to public vs. private. As long as the GPS devices are attached to vehicles on public roads, Kerr believes the U.S. Supreme Court will decide no warrant is needed. To decide otherwise, he said, would ignore a long line of previous 4th Amendment decisions allowing for warrantless searches as long as they're conducted on public property.

"The historic line is that public surveillance is not covered by the 4th Amendment," Kerr said.

All of which makes Afifi's lawyer pessimistic that he has much of a chance to file a successful lawsuit challenging the FBI's actions. Afifi is represented by Zahra Billoo of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Islamic civil rights group.

Afifi declined comment after spending last week fielding myriad media inquiries after wired.com posted the story of his routine oil change and it went viral on the Internet.

Still, Billoo hopes the discovered GPS tracking device will help publicize in dramatic fashion the issue of racial profiling the lawyer says Arab-Americans routinely encounter.

She said Afifi was targeted because of his extensive ties to the Middle East, which include supporting two brothers who live in Egypt and making frequent overseas trips. His father was a well-known Islamic-American community leader who died last year in Egypt.

"Yasir hasn't done anything to warrant that kind of surveillance," Billoo said. "This was a blatant example of profiling."

It really makes you think who's next, how small is too small, how obscure can you make yourself? Am I overly paranoid or just cautious about what sites I sign up for and what I can or cannot post.

 

[walt cunningham]

anytime i am anywhere outside my house, i always act as if i am being recorded, but i've been doing that long before i got into the "game", im a weidro

 

[HempKat]

Here's a little food for thought:




It really makes you think who's next, how small is too small, how obscure can you make yourself? Am I overly paranoid or just cautious about what sites I sign up for and what I can or cannot post.

What it really boils down to in my opinion is this. If they're getting that careless and sloppy, if they're essentially allowing this story out there, then it's because they got even better ways so they don't care about this type of thing being discovered by the public.

As far as the internet you're only true line of defense between you and them is your ISP. They can get your IP address if they want to, even if you use proxies and bounce your connection all over the place, they can track you. To get paste the government's top level cyber forces you would need to be a pretty sophisticated hacker. With your IP they or anyone can easily pinpoint you to your city. There are search engine like things where you can input an ip address and it'll tell you that much. To get to you actual location though, your home or business, they got to get that from your ISP and that's not something an ISP wants to hand over too readily because it's bad for business to get your customers busted. They can only do so much though. Once court orders get involved or it is considered a matter of national security they'll pretty much have to comply if they don't want to be shut down.

In the end what it really comes down to is this, how important to them are you? To really track people like that and do most of the really high level spying they're capable of takes resources that are limited. They're not going to waste that on the average person growing a few plants for themselves. In fact they probably prefer people do that because that steals away from the dealers which is who they are really interested in. That's not to say they won't bust you if you make it to easy for them to catch you. It's just to say they're not likely to put a GPS tracking device on your car or tap your phones and internet. Now if you're some big time dealer with a bunch of houses you use for grow sites, scattered around neighborhoods, then maybe they'd be watching you like that. Then again if you were that type you would be a fool to be logging onto sites like this to talk about it.

Also it should be noted this is most likely a matter of yet another individual being put on a terrorist watch list because they have a name that either sounds like a known terrorist or is a name of mid-east origin. They've made mistakes like this many times before, even with people that are clearly not terrorists such as a well known reporter with CNN who has the same name as a known terrorist.

 

[BrainSellz]

Also it should be noted this is most likely a matter of yet another individual being put on a terrorist watch list because they have a name that either sounds like a known terrorist or is a name of mid-east origin. They've made mistakes like this many times before, even with people that are clearly not terrorists such as a well known reporter with CNN who has the same name as a known terrorist.

Time for a name change for those folks with "mid-east origin" names. I couldnt imagine having to worry about that with the way things are in the states. I know its easier said then done but this is a police state for anybody with a name of mid-east origin, imo. Those people cant even wipe there ass without someone knowing about it.

 

[mule420]

RF scanners and jammers are easy to get... Buy one, sweep your belongings or people when you feel the need, I do... Do this in a closed garage on a vehicle of course... People are sheep, be a wolf...

 

[walt cunningham]

http://www.thejammerstore.com/handh...1-p-126.html?zenid=33nk9g2op7thvlesiatkmumm45
The hand heldphone jammer HPJ-01 is small and light, it can be easily put inside your pocket or hand bag. It can disable all types of cellular signals including the new 3G band. The isolating radius is up to 10 meters. It comes with rechargeable Li-Ion battery, an AC charge and a car charger. $33

http://www.thejammerstore.com/gpswi...j-p-175.html?zenid=33nk9g2op7thvlesiatkmumm45
This new launched jammer HGPRFJ is multifunctional-it is a mobile phone jammer,GPS jammer and a bug device jammer as well. It can disable all types of cellular signals except the new 3G band. The isolating radius is up to 20 meters. It comes with rechargeable Li-Ion battery, an AC charge and a car charger.$179

 

[BrainSellz]

http://www.thejammerstore.com/handh...1-p-126.html?zenid=33nk9g2op7thvlesiatkmumm45
The hand heldphone jammer HPJ-01 is small and light, it can be easily put inside your pocket or hand bag. It can disable all types of cellular signals including the new 3G band. The isolating radius is up to 10 meters. It comes with rechargeable Li-Ion battery, an AC charge and a car charger. $33

http://www.thejammerstore.com/gpswi...j-p-175.html?zenid=33nk9g2op7thvlesiatkmumm45
This new launched jammer HGPRFJ is multifunctional-it is a mobile phone jammer,GPS jammer and a bug device jammer as well. It can disable all types of cellular signals except the new 3G band. The isolating radius is up to 20 meters. It comes with rechargeable Li-Ion battery, an AC charge and a car charger.$179

Just make sure they havent yet came out with a "jammer jammer jammer jammer" to jam your jammer. Its like the radar detector detectors or radar detector jammers. Once one thing is made something to counter it comes out right behind that etc. etc.

 

[Ordinary Joe]

The real issue is your GPS Navigation system in your vehicle, portable or permanent like Onstar, and in your phone could also be tapped into without warrant. As long as someone is only monitoring the GPS location, it would still fall under this current ruling.

I agree with others, if they put something on your vehicle and you find it. I say it belongs to you now. They left it and need a warrant to get it back. I would wrap the device up in a towel and then zip-tie it so the towel doesn't fall off. Walk to the top of an overpass and drop the whole works on a Semitruck headed out of town!

Here is the original SUBJECT's posting to REDDIT.com
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/dmh5s/does_this_mean_the_fbi_is_after_us/

Ninth Circuit Court ruling GPS tracking is Legal
http://www.executivegov.com/2010/08/ninth-circuit-court-secret-gps-tracking-is-legal/

 

[Frogger]

feds tracking you

feds tracking you

keep a eye on your cars under side!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_on_re_us/us_gps_tracking_warrants

 

[Dopeboy668]

Deff checkin under mine once a week. I read about this last week an the first thing I did was go crawl under my vehicle an have a look see. Pretty bad when ya gotta make sure your not "bugged" before you go out driving nowdays.

 

[Strainhunter]

they took their gps,back!
http://gawker.com/5658671/dont-post...king-device-you-find-on-a-car-to-the-internet

Another good example whatever one does online is capable of being followed up on.


Basically once you post stuff online it's open game to authorities.


IP masking? Posting only from Internet Cafes? Routing through different computers?

The above just add a search step to investigators.



If they want you they'll find you, period.



.

 

[headband 707]

Yeah I watched this show Jessy Ventura and he showed how fucking tricky these guys are and now they can throw what looks like a rock onto your property and it will unlock your computer/phone/pin#'s access code etc and they can hear everything your saying ffs LOL.. Pretty sneaky shit.... I guess when your number is up it's up .. peace out Headband707

 

[Frogger]

if you find a device smash it and instantly clean up shop cause your screwed. my friend once found one and brought it to his lawyers office. he was busted a week later. the fool didnt clean up

don't smash'em just fedx to china! f*** the FED'S AND THE DEA

 

[grasspass]

A no trespassing sign recently got a illegal growing and meth possession charge thrown out in Southern Oregon . It was rural property and I don't know if the guy had a closed gate or not. The news didn't say if he had a med card, I'm pretty sure he didn't have a med card or the news would have said so. Cops originally went there for a reason unrelated to drugs.

 

[growshopfrank]

If you have a GM vehicle with Onstar you are already wired for tracking and audio. The po po have no problem getting a warrant for that and the best part is you pay for it ain't life grand.